


Give Them A Year (Then See What Happens)

by afteriwake



Series: Pursuit Of Happiness [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-03 09:47:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/696954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Molly and Sally have a great friendship, and while they're different they're also frightfully similar. Tonight they have guy problems, and they make a pledge: give the men they fancy a year to be what they want them to be or let them go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give Them A Year (Then See What Happens)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [andrea_deer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/andrea_deer/gifts).



> Answering a prompt for the sherlockmas Afterglow Fest: "Molly and Sally epic friendship. They may disagree on plenty of subjects and be very different in character, but somehow they still click and that's what counts." This will be yet another series, and the entire series will pretty much answer that prompt. Also, this is set in the middle of "A Scandal In Belgravia," right before the Christmas party. Figure around the beginning of December.

She had a crush. An absurd thing, this crush. Sherlock would never give her the time of day, let alone the love and affection she craved. She needed to get past this, needed to move on. Having a crush on Sherlock was like letting a slow acting poison enter her body: as time went on the effects would only get worse, and she would find that her life was worse for it.

But she couldn’t help it. She had always been attracted to men who didn’t notice her. She was mousy little Molly Hooper…which man in their right mind _would_ notice her? But just the same, she was nursing a crush, and though her mind told her it was a bad idea her heart just didn’t care. Her heart wanted him and no one else.

She had a few friends she could talk to about this, but no one would understand more than Sally. After all, Sally had been through a similar situation with Anderson, though there were distinct differences: Sherlock was clueless and slightly cruel while Anderson was simply married to someone else. But she and Sally had had hour long conversations on the state of their romantic lives, and while Sally was the type to make a go for _something_ with the man she cared for Molly was just going to stew about it. But at least Molly could talk it out with someone.

They met up for drinks once a week, usually on Friday or Saturday, when the pub was full and they didn’t seem so sad and desperate. And when Molly walked into their pub today, there was Sally, knocking back a pint. She was almost two-thirds done with it, from the glance Molly gave it before she went to get her own drink. When it was ready she took it and went to their table. “Started without me?” Molly asked.

“We had a fight,” Sally said glumly. “I asked him if he was ever going to leave his wife.”

Molly’s eyes widened. Sally had seemed to be content with what she had with Anderson, so this was a surprise. She knew Sally wanted more, but to actually ask for it? “That took some brass ones,” Molly said.

“Yeah, and look at how it turned out,” Sally said, picking up her pint and drinking more of it. “I think I lost him, Molly.”

“Maybe it’s a good thing?” Molly suggested tentatively before taking a drink.

“I never comment on your ridiculous crush on Sherlock Holmes, so why would you think the end of whatever it is I have with Anderson is a good thing?” Sally said, glaring at Molly slightly.

“That’s not what I meant, Sally,” Molly said, setting down her drink. “I meant that maybe it’s a good thing because now he knows what you want.”

“Oh,” she said.

“I hope he leaves his wife. I’ve met her. She’s not all that good for him. You’re infinitely better.”

“Yeah,” she said, without much conviction. “I’m sorry I called your crush on Sherlock ridiculous.”

“But it kind of is,” Molly said with a shrug. “I’m trying to talk myself out of it. I mean, he’s never going to notice me. He’s never going to _love_ me, let alone like me. What’s the point? I’m just setting myself up for heartache.”

Sally looked at her. “You know I don’t like him. If he never bothered me again I’d only be too grateful. Do you really want my opinion on this?”

Molly nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Make a move.”

Molly blinked. “What?”

“Make a move. John invited you to that Christmas party, right? Get him a nice gift, show up in a nice dress and see if he notices. If he does, go on from there. If he doesn’t, let the crush die a crushing death.” Sally went back to her drink for a moment. “No pun intended.”

Molly chuckled slightly. “It’s all right.”

“Look at us, though,” Sally said thoughtfully, looking at her beer. “I have the guy I want, but he’s married and I want him all to myself. You don’t have the guy you want, but he’s kind of an idiot and you haven’t put yourself out there. We put the whole feminist movement to shame.”

“Maybe we’re just being cautious. Or I am, at any rate. Maybe we just want better?” Molly took a sip of her beer.

“I don’t know how Sherlock is better, but maybe if he dates you he’ll become more human. You have the patience of a saint. If anyone would be good for him like that it would be you.”

“Yeah, but what do I have to offer?”

“Just as much as I have to offer to Anderson, if not more. And if the two of them are too blind to see it, then maybe we’re better off without them.” Sally lifted up her now nearly empty pint. “Let’s make a deal. Let’s give them a year. If in a year they’re both colossal idiots and we aren’t happy, we forget about them and look somewhere else. All right?”

“All right,” Molly said with a nod, lifting up her own glass. They tapped their glasses against each other. “A year from now, we re-evaluate and decide again.”

“Good.” Sally finished her drink as Molly took another sip of hers. “Let me go get another pint and we’ll talk about better stuff, things that don’t involve our love lives. I’ll be right back.”

Sally got up from the table and Molly watched her walk back up to the bar. A year. She could give Sherlock a year. Whether he actually responded to her or changed in any noticeable way would be key in whether she let go of this crush. If he could never be what she wanted for him to be for her she would let go of the crush and move on. But if he could, then she’d fight for it with all she had, just like she knew Sally would with Anderson. That was how they were after all: different in a lot of ways but, at the core, essentially the same. That’s why they were such good friends. And tonight, that was why she was so glad Sally Donovan was her friend, because she understood.


End file.
